Whistleblowers are heroes of many Hollywood films

The courageous exploits of whistleblowers who exposed crime, fraud and other wrongdoing have been portrayed in numerous hit movies in recent decades.

Scott Williams, CEO of Ethic Alliance, says whistleblowers deserve to be immortalized on the big screen.

“The courage that Whistleblowers have shown, and the stories of what they went through to ensure justice was served is amazing.  Many of their stories are perfect for the big screen and it’s no surprise that movies about them have been both nominated for and won multiple Oscars ,” says Williams.

Ethic Alliance is a for-profit corporation and law firm whose purpose is to empower, educate and protect whistleblowers, ensuring they receive the protection they need and the rewards they are entitled to under US law (the US government will typically reward whistleblowers 10%-30% of the amount recovered or sanctioned under various whistleblower laws), generating profits for investors while reducing corruption, fraud, theft, lying and cheating in our society.

Ethic Alliance protects whistleblowers through a secure, encrypted reporting and messaging platform, attaching the strong legal protection of attorney-client privilege from the moment a report is filed with us, and access to a network of specialty attorneys that have made careers protecting and supporting whistleblowers, and working with the US government to win whistleblower lawsuits.

Here’s a quick look at 10 great films about whistleblowers:

The Dropout

This series debuted on Hulu in March 2022. The Dropout portrays events leading up to the scandal at Silicon Valley biomedical company Theranos, which was founded by CEO Elizabeth A. Holmes. After whistleblower Tyler Shultz exposed massive fraud by Holmes, she was convicted in January 2022 of operating a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors.

The Report

This 2019 film starring Adam Driver is based on revelations unearthed by Senate investigator Daniel J. Jones about the Central Intelligence Agency’s abuse of “enhanced interrogation,” better known as torture, on 119 prisoners held after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Read a declassified executive summary of the disturbing findings here.

The Informant!

This 2009 film starring Matt Damon is about the real life Mark Whitacre, who calls himself “the highest-level executive to ever turn whistleblower in U.S. history.” In the mid-1990s, Whitacre exposed an international price fixing conspiracy at agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland. He wore a wire for the FBI for almost three years and was sent to prison for fraud and tax evasion.

The Most Dangerous Man in America

Another 2009 film, this documentary tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who exposed the dirty secrets of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, later leaked to The New York Times and published in 1971 as the “Pentagon Papers.” “I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public,” Ellsberg said. He was later indicted for stealing secret documents, but charges were ultimately dropped.

North County

This 2005 film starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand tells the story of Josey Aimes, who exposed sexual harassment at a mining company and later filed a first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit. The case resulted in establishing landmark sexual harassment policy for the workplace.

Erin Brockovich

This 2000 film starring Julia Roberts tells the true story of its namesake, a divorced single mother who single-handedly exposed a huge California utility company’s contamination of a small town’s water supply with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium. “Everywhere I was going in this little community, somebody had asthma, a complaint of a chronic cough, recurring bronchitis, recurring rashes, unusual joint aches, nosebleeds,” Brockovich told ABC News show “20/20”. “It didn't make sense, and so the more I ask questions ... the more I started to piece the puzzle together.”

The Insider

This 1999 film starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino tells the story of Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco company biochemist who exposed how the company doctored its tobacco blends with chemicals to punch up the effects of nicotine.  Fired by the company in 1993 and targeted in a national smear campaign, he told his story in 1996 to news show 60 Minutes.

Silkwood

This 1983 film starring Meryl Streep, Cher and Kurt Russell tells the story of Karen Silkwood, a 28-year-old technician at a plutonium plant operated by Kerr-McGee Corp. who complained to the Atomic Energy Commission about unsafe conditions at the plant. In 1974, she died in a mysterious car accident in Oklahoma. Her family later received a settlement from Kerr-McGee and the plant was closed in 1979.

All The President’s Men

This 1976 classic starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman tells the story of how anonymous whistleblower “Deep Throat” revealed the Watergate scandal to two reporters at The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose stories ultimately contributed to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 2005, a former No. 2 official at the FBI, Mark Felt, confirmed that he was “Deep Throat.”

Serpico

Another classic, this 1973 film starring Al Pacino tells the story of New York cop Frank Serpico who exposed corruption in the city’s police department. Serpico’s whistleblowing led to The Knapp Commission Report, which found “corruption to be widespread” (read it here).

Contact Ethic Alliance at info@ethicalliance.com

Photo by Vincentas Liskauskas on Unsplash